About 280 forestry workers on the islands put down their chainsaws and other tools and joined thousands of other coastal loggers in a strike which began at midnight Friday (July 20).
United Steelworkers are "fighting for the tattered ends of the middle class" at the picket line on the Queen Charlotte Main turn-off from 6 am to 6 pm during the strike. In the photo are Ron Souza and Frank Young with L and R Excavating, Sonny Williams with Olympic and Brad Reid from Husby (quoted above). They are just four of the 6,500 forest workers off the job in BC.
Their demands include a restriction on arbitrary work schedules, extra pay for Sundays and increased curbs on contracting out.. The Steelworkers have been negotiating with employer group Forest Industrial Relations and three other companies and had been in a strike position since earlier this month.